A New Life
by placidCaffeine
Summary: The story of a boy who knew the risk of joining the trapped players of SAO yet still did in his desire for a new life. Can he live to be the hero he has always dreamed of becoming or will he be forgotten like many others among the floors of Aincrad?
1. Chapter 1

On November eighth of 2022, the highly anticipated game Sword Art Online was released to the general public, a game that was created by the inventor of the NerveGear, a system that allowed a player to enter a virtual world as if it were their own. SAO was to be his magnum opus and the cost of creating a game of its magnitude was immense.

Argus, the company that had worked with its creator, Kayaba Akihiko, to make it was only able to fund one server for the game. This server's limit could only host ten thousand players, causing the game creators to only make ten thousand copies to sell around the globe. All ten thousand copies had been bought by eager gamers in the first hour of release and at one o'clock that day almost every player who bought the game was able to login to the game for the server's grand opening.

By the end of the day it was spread that only about three hundred were able to exit the game; only they never returned to reality either. All three hundred were found dead. The second day brought over two hundred more dead and no one on the outside world able to figure out why. Why were these specific players dead? If this was Kayaba's intention why wasn't everybody who was in the game dead by now?

By the end of the third day several hospitals around the world were set as stations to take the victims of the SAO Incident, as it had been dubbed; where they would be taken care of in their comatose state. Televisions played messages warning all those that hadn't started their games to destroy them and any NerveGear systems with the game installed.

But somewhere in the third day among the deaths, if one were to pay close enough attention they would see an unexpected change occur. The player count of SAO increased by one. Someone had known of the death trap they were walking into and still started the game.

This is the story of that player.

November 11th, 2022 – Washington, USA – Three days after the SAO Incident

"Cole, do you have any questions you think will help any of the beginners here?" A booming voice called to me from the front of the room.

"... None that I can think of," I tossed out a distracted answer, "I think we've covered all the bases."

"Okay then, you guys know what to do by now; I'll be in my office if you need any help." My teacher trailed off before doing as he had said and going to his office.

Around me the room became alive with the practice of other guitar students. Of course, it still being the first few weeks of school, only a few of the returning students actually played their songs solidly. Everyone was still rather self-conscious too so there wasn't much singing going on yet either. I sat alone up in the top row behind the percussion instruments from the band classes and resumed dwelling in the solitary peace it provided. I had much more important things to be doing, predominantly focused on the game console in my closet.

I had skipped school on the day of SAO's release and even though I was late I had been lucky enough to have gotten a hold of it by buying it off a guy out front who had bought several games and was selling them for an extra hundred dollars apiece. Although it cleaned me out of every last penny I had I didn't even question if it was the right decision.

I dropped it off at my house after I got home and due to one of my teachers teaching style I had to leave the game for later and go back to class to take a test that would drastically change my grade if I missed it. My game would have to wait for later; grades were more important.

Thus I missed the grand opening of Sword Art Online in favor of a history test. By the end of the school day I was in high energy mode and had rushed to my car. I had not told anyone in my family I was going to get the game, since my mom would have wildly disapproved at the cost; my brother took his sweet ass time getting to the car. When he actually got there I was given the great pleasure of bringing one of our friends too.

Kai had decided that today was a great day for our friend Marquize to come over and I just had to go along for the ride. So we hung out for several hours, my new game lying in my room since I knew if I told either of them they would immediately try to monopolize time playing it.

Due to this I wasn't able to touch the NerveGear until I had taken my friend home at eight. By the time I got home I knew my mom would be passed out on the couch, and I tried my best to work open the door quietly. She spent so much time working she was always really tired when she got home so me having to take friends home and drive around at night probably didn't do her much help.

The TV across from her played the news she usually left on at night since she wasn't there to watch it in the morning. On it the Sword Art Online title was displayed along with a news reporter speaking slowly keeping up a rather grim face.

"Citizens who have ordered a copy of the game Sword Art Online and a 'NerveGear' console have been advised to put off playing the game and call services to dispose of it. Anyone who knows a person that may have started playing the game within the past couple hours is warned to not remove to console from their head as it is likely to cause fatal damage to the brain." His voice hitched near the end.

"As well, anyone who has begun using the 'NerveGear' helmet must be handled with the utmost care as they are in a volatile state as of right now. Please report any and all citizens affected by the game to the numbers on the bottom of the screen based on where you live in the area."

Later you could find me lying in my bed awake for hours, although that itself wasn't unusual, I only stared at my ceiling in thought. I had spent the entirety of my savings to play the game for a reason. I had always dreamed about being a great adventurer in some world far off from my own. The expectations of society were finally coming to a crescendo in my senior year of high school and all I had wanted to do was forget it all and at least live out my dream in my downtime with the game. Now that hope was impossible.

When I was finally able to fall asleep that night almost a hundred more people died in the game and not a soul knew that one of the devices responsible for it was sitting in my closet.

The next few days passed in a daze for me, unable to decide on what I was going to do with the NerveGear. I continued to go to school but I didn't talk to anyone and sat alone going over what to do. My art notebook no longer held sketches but pages and pages of lists weighing the pros and cons of plugging in or not. It quickly became apart to me that no matter how much sense it made to stay in the real world I would always choose my fantasy land over it.

There were letters assigned to my family and friends crossed out over and over again and various pages of lists and plans on how to get in the game without affecting my family and friends too much and to make sure they knew it was what I wanted.

My friends began to question me about what I had been doing, having had a rather energetic personality for so long beforehand. My brother kept his distance since I'm sure he could tell what I was doing was important. He and I had always been rather close since we were born as twins and as such had spent almost every day of our lives near each other.

I was close to telling him about the game whenever I felt too unsure since we usually always talked about our decisions together. Later I decided he would feel betrayed if I told him I had the system. I had only not asked him if he wanted one; to make mom not be disappointed in the both of us. It would have been better if only one of us did something we knew she wouldn't like. He would probably try to get one himself if he knew I was going to go into the game, though the search might have been in vain. Not because he felt the need to protect me, but due to us being so similar.

I decided on the plan on how to go through with logging into the game by the eleventh which involved writing letters to each of my family members and friends entailing my reasons. The final letter I needed to write was assigned to my mom and detailed what was going on and what I needed her to do when she found me, since me staying alive would mostly rely on her doing it right. I set my guitar back into my case as my teacher went into his office and pulled out my half way filled notebook and wrote out my final letter.

_Dear Mom,_

_I'm sorry for how much I know this will hurt you and I wish there was some great way for me to convince you that this is for the best but I know there isn't. All I want you to know is this is not yours or__anyone's__fault._

_The last few days I have been rather distant since I've been fretting over finding a way to word this eloquently but bluntness is probably for the best. My dream was always to be born into a different world. SAO can provide that. I want to be free to live my life the way I want instead of be the person everyone else wants me to be. And SAO will allow that._

_I know I'm throwing myself into danger in probably the worst way possible but I know that the creator of the system would have a reason for what he did and a way to get out, that just how he is. When I get into something you know I research it thoroughly and the man that made the game has his reasons for doing things the way he has. There is a way to get out. I know this._

_I will not die and I will come back; I promise you this. When I do I will do whatever you want me to do but right now I need this._

_There is one thing I need you to do though. Since it has been a few days since the incident I may need you to lie and say no one in the house has heard of the SAO Incident. Since you have your super tight work schedule you can say you never had the time to watch the news in the last couple of days. This is just me being precautious though, they will probably not even question it._

_Anyways, I love you and I'll see you when I'm out._

_~Cole_

I have to say it wasn't quite my finest work but it reeked of my voice and that was probably what my mom needed out of it the most. The rest of the letters written to my friends and the rest of my family were on the pages behind it. I didn't really write too much for my friends since they would probably understand pretty easily; I only chose the best to be my friends after all.

With the last of my preparations done I placed my notebook back into my bag and picked up my guitar again, I still had thirty minutes left of my final class and I wasn't going to waste the last of my time thinking.

The polished wood of my guitar comforted my hands as I racked my brain for a song to play. Sadly I only knew how to play a handful of songs up to an adequacy that I allowed in a public place so it only took me a minute to start up one a folksong that were among my favorites. I can't really say I played as well as the other returning students but I made sure to sing with more spirit than was justly called for and I chose my songs based on that. I wanted to be able to change a room in feeling; not in awe. I hoped I would have the option to play in SAO.

The short time passed quickly as I finished my song and played a couple more that I was able to remember. Soon the chairs were stacked into the corner of the band room and I had grabbed my gear and was strolling out of the room. I was quick to getting to my locker, cleaning out everything that I'd compiled thus far in my short time back in school. With my backpack rather bulbous and my guitar strapped to my back I headed out of my school. I wasn't really sure how long I'd be in the game but this may have been the last time I was going to be here and that thought kind of bummed me out. I liked this place.

After a short trip to my car and a little longer of a wait for my brother to get in we were making the quick drive to our house. The car was silent besides the soft tunes playing on the radio. My brother was leaned against the window deep in thought and I didn't really feel like disturbing him.

Out of nowhere he spoke up "Hey Cole, are we supposed to be doing anything this afternoon?" His peculiar speech pattern followed through and the question seemed to sort of drift back and forth as he said it.

"Not really, I'll probably just play a game when we get home. Why?" I was being a huge douche; he didn't even know what was going on and I was dangling that fucking joke in his face. I should just kill myself now.

He continued to stare out the window, "Austin said we could probably go caching today. I dunno; I just want to get out of the house I guess, get some air before we plug in again."

"I'm not really feeling it today. I just want to lie down for a while." I usually made stupid puns and quips, but fuck me if it's become automatic now, "can you call Austin to come pick you up or something?"

The conversation stopped at that and within a minute we were home. We lived in a rather nice neighborhood within a forested patch of land. Our mom and step dad were the classic college learned work hard types so we had it pretty good for ourselves. Of course, that also came with rather high expectations but I figured that was an even trade off in my book.

Our step dad was gone right now on a business trip and wouldn't be back for a couple days and according to my mom's calendar she just left for work and wouldn't be back till late in the night so if Kai didn't try anything I wouldn't get bothered until morning at the earliest.

Then again, it's not like they would really be able to do anything about it anyways.

The car stopped in its set spot in the gravel extension to our driveway and me and my brother hopped out, gathering our stuff from the back of the car. With a quick application of the key the door was open and we were inside, him to the kitchen and me to my room.

I knew that Kai would most likely walk into my room when he decided to go upstairs, as was his habit, so I set down my bags and sat at my laptop first to do some quick web surfing. I checked up on some of the social media websites I frequented looking at fan art of one of the webcomics I had been reading and posted more snide bullshit that would only make sense in a couple hours. I needed to make it look like this was my choice at a new life and not let people assume it was a suicide thing. People get too attached to that idea these days.

As I guessed Kai came upstairs a few seconds after closed the last of my tabs. Also as I assumed he immediately walked up and kicked my door open with a boisterous shout.

"What do you want Kai?" I groaned, emphasizing his name. He did this every day and walked out after grabbing something in my room and setting it back down again. It was seriously the stupidest thing he did in all of his dumb daily habits. Today he walked over to my alarm clock and turned it upside down before falling down onto my bed.

"Austin's coming over in a little bit so I think I'm just gonna sit in your room and bother you until he gets here." That said he began to shimmy around my sheets until they were a mess. We both knew he was being stupid but I just let him go with it since I wouldn't be seeing him for a while.

Figuring I had another twenty minutes or so before I could start the game I walked over to the bathroom and started cleaning myself up. Kai stopped making noise in the other room. I would need to make sure my body would be as fine as it could be while I was in game. God, what if I was in there for a month or two? My teeth would get super gross and my hair might start to grow out again.

Eh, I'd take care of that when I got back.

I wonder how everyone was dying in the game. Obviously there was a ruling system to it or else more people would be dead by now. Only somewhere around seven hundred had died so far but that was to be expected of people who were trapped in a game, a lot of people almost view suicide as the first measure to take when bad shit happens. It's pretty depressing. Kayaba wouldn't have spent so many years making such an intricate game for it to just be a trap, the game must have been used to do the killing somehow.

The only way I could actually see that happening though is if he made it so monsters could kill you in real life somehow and since people weren't dying at an incredibly high rate they obviously must be able to fight back. Maybe I should put some of this reasoning in my letters; it would probably have helped my point. No matter, someone else must have come along that reasoning thus far if anyone really thought about it.

I heard Kai talking to someone in the other room so I promptly turned off my rather loud shaver.

"What did you say?"

Kai leaned in from the bathroom door, "I said you have a NerveGear in your closet."

I stared at him for a couple seconds in probably the dumbest way possible before asking, "What?"

"Where'd you get a NerveGear, that shit is expensive as fuck."

I figured if he knew I had a NerveGear he would figure it all out soon enough, he was a pretty smart guy. "I ditched school on Tuesday and bought one."

"You got SAO too, right?" He obviously knew about the system, it was all over the internet even before the whole entrapment.

"Yeah, I was going to play it today. I didn't get one for you since mom would probably flip out if we spent all our money on them and I figured we could both play it even if we only had one at first."

"You're gonna play it? Never mind, I probably would have started sooner if I had one. Shit." A horn beeped outside through my window; that was probably Austin.

"Yeah, I wrote everyone letters and stuff, figured I might as well explain myself before I got to have my fun." I laughed guiltily; we both knew there was no way I was just going to not go.

He sighed before extending his arm toward me. "I'll hold down the real world for now I guess, unless a system gets into my hands as unlikely as that would be. You just don't die."

"Yeah right, like I could die; I'm too awesome for that." We were on the same page as always. I brought up my fist to his and we bumped knuckles. This was our divide.

A minute later Austin found his way up our stairs and greeted Kai, "What's up bro?" Austin was a pretty cool guy but he was a giant dork. We were pretty good friends.

Kai casually greeted him and I watched silently, I did that a lot even if who I was with was a close friend. They headed out a minute later and I heard Austin's car peel out of the driveway as I finished shaving. I cleaned my face off and headed into my room.

I was alone and ready to play. Kai knowing seriously dropped a heavy weight off my back.

My closet was open and lying on a pile of worn out jackets was my NerveGear which had been laying there since my friend's disturbance had stopped me a couple days back. I dragged it out and plugged its ethernet cord into the socket next to my bed before flopping down. My bed was still rather disordered from Kai's bothering.

That was going to bug me if I knew I was sleeping on that even if I was in game. Immediately I set down the console and went to work putting all the sheets and pillows back in place. Satisfied with my work I nodded before picking up the NerveGear again, placing it on my head and flicking the switch on.

The first thing that appeared on its see through visor was the time which read 3:49 and a battery symbol signifying it was at full charge. Soon after, a line of text began to write itself across the screen, most likely a tutorial since I still hadn't actually used to system yet.

It asked me to assist it in calibrating to my body, most likely to get a good idea of what to set my base avatar in any games I played as. After 'assisting' it by touching my feet to fondling my shoulder blades which actually seemed to bug the system since they jutted it rather obscenely since I was pretty skinny it displayed all the measurements it had gathered. I didn't really care about it since I could probably change anything wrong with it I just accepted its data.

Soon after I had accepted the text came back again, this time it was a much simpler command, to say 'Link Start'. I had read in the manual this was what was going to be what actually brought me into the program. I laid down on my bed with my head resting on my pillow; which was quickly found to be uncomfortable with the added height of the helmet. I pulled the pillow out from under my head and tossed it into my computer chair before plopping back down.

After needlessly adjusting myself I followed through with the text's order.

"Link Start."

A tunnel of colors greeted me as the screen white washed and I lost sight of the room around me. Next to go was my feeling of the bed under me as orbs with each of the senses crossed the screen, lighting up as they were taken away. Quickly following the chirping of birds and whirring of wind outside was gone and the taste of the toothpaste I'd just used left my mouth. When the scent of my room was gone and nothing was there I felt a growing fear in my mind.

The sense orbs disappeared and it was just me floating. Truly there was no feeling of floating either though; just consciousness. When a blue screen appeared before me I was rather startled as it contrasted greatly with the stark white I was surrounded by. It asked me to input my username and password which I had set up previously. After typing in my codes a chime of acceptance rang out before the system seemed to set a border for a room around me.

It then brought forth a screen telling me to choose a character or make a new one. Since the first one was grayed out since I hadn't made a character yet I was forced to choose the latter. Immediately after my choice a stock still body appeared before me and a multitude of screens appeared and began floating around it.

My incorporeal form approached it, it looked like me. Huh. The NerveGear must be able to take photos of the wearer or something. That was pretty neat. On it was a pretty cool outfit in my opinion, I hope that's what the starting armor was but it was in all white.

I figured the clothes make the man so I quickly got to work filling in the shirt in with brown with black as its accent colors and giving the chest plate silver shading. I left the pants and the boots in their white and black colors respectively before heading onto the body.

Usually I would be one to try and make the character look as similar to me as possible but now that he looked exactly like me I was kind of skittish of going out only to be surrounded by incredibly idealistic looking avatars. I went for an erase tool and started getting rid of the marks I had gotten from acne in my younger years and the weird spike in my eyebrow.

He looked good to me but I decided to mess with his hair. My brother had said he liked this spike that I had in my hair near the front so I decided to accentuate it and styled my hair a little so it looked nicer pushed back.

With a sigh which didn't make a sound from my currently formless body I pressed the 'Finished' button. All the character creation screens disappeared and I began to feel a growing sense in my chest. Looking down I was startled to find a chest appearing under me, spreading out until I felt the comfort of pressure against the floor. I had feet now. The body I'd been making was forming around my consciousness and I wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

I was brought out of my thoughts with the final screen appeared asking me what I wanted to call my character. After beginning to type in one of my lame computer game aliases I noticed that I would probably get annoyed if people called me 'NotCole' on a regular basis. I would need a catchy name. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that before I started.

As far as I could tell, it was around twenty minutes later that I figured out what I actually wanted to be called. I entered 'Coal' into the text field. I know, so creative. No need to pat yourself on the back Cole.

After a minute for the game to register my character I began to feel a pulling sensation on my new body. The room's borders faded away and the words 'Welcome to Sword Art Online!' floated in front of me. A tunnel of colors appeared before me again which was apparently the go to method of going places. Instead of the multiple colors like before this time it appeared to only use shades of blue this time.

When the tunnel's end was reached the screen intensified the brightness of the white surrounding me and I quickly found myself unable to look any more, shielding my eyes behind my arm. It was before I moved my arm that I felt the wind brush across my body and heard the lively talking far away.

I moved my hand away from my face and was met with a monument within a rather large stone built area. Around me people were going about their business armed with swords and armor. Some were kneeling in front of a monument in the middle of the area. A couple of people were staring at me as I yelled in excitement.

I was in.


	2. Chapter 2

The plaza surrounding me felt as if it was held down by a cloud of despair. The players who ambled across its dusty stone floor wore lifeless expressions; those who spoke did so in mutters giving the area that held at the very least over five hundred players an unsettling atmosphere. In the middle of the plaza a monument that would have once seemed given an air of wonder now gave one of loss as people knelt around it hanging their heads; for what I was uncertain.

This had not been what I was expecting. I thought at least a few people would fight to leave the game but from what I was seeing it was almost like they had just given up. I needed to get out of here; these people were beginning to bring me down as well.

In front of my starting point was a large dome topped building with several spires which seemed to offer no way out of here. But behind me, past the mob of wandering players and the monument, was an exit. I quickly began to find my way past the morose players who only turned to look up at me when I needed to push past them. God their self-pity was getting rather annoying.

Whilst passing the monument, which on closer inspection appeared to be a large grave marker, I noticed a player who appeared to walk without the usual slump of defeat the other players had. The player was cloaked in a deep brown cloak that covered the entirety of their avatar. Which to me was a good sign; they had to have earned the money to buy it in some way, and that meant they were actually playing.

My first plan had been to question them on my theories behind the deaths, but once they noticed me coming near them they jumped off like a rocket. Whoever they were they did not want to talk to me but I wasn't willing to give up, this was the first person who I might be able to talk to without getting a defeated answer or nothing at all.

My legs shot out from behind me as I started to chase after the cloaked player but I quickly found that to not work as well as I had expected. For some reason I wasn't able to move as fast as I was able to in the real world yet my mark seemed to be unaffected by this. By the time I was halfway from the monument to the exit they were already there, surprisingly jumping up over the hedges at the end and on top of one of the side buildings.

Quickly finding my inability to get to the other player, I slowed down to a stop as their cloak became hidden behind the buildings. Before anything else I needed to find out why my body was so messed up. Maybe there was some sort of login status effect that took a while to get out or something. How to go about opening the menu though...

Damn, I needed to find someone that knew how to do this stuff before even that!

Walking and groaning I began to continue my walk to the exit, this time without a goal within sight. The lifeless players around me seemed to accept my defeated gloom that I had found myself bothered by. Past Cole had hated them but now that I looked it seemed like they were just like me, no goal in sight and being held down by something within the game. Maybe they weren't so wrong to be depressed.

Understanding I was letting he atmosphere of the plaza get to me I forced myself to lift my head high and began to walk with purpose; I was going somewhere and I couldn't be bogged down by those thoughts. I left my doubts back in the real world. This was going to be a new me.

Shifting my eyes across the street I had just entered I was greeted by even more lifeless players but this time there were a few actual players like the one before talking to what appeared to be NPC merchants. This was probably a small beginner's market if my knowledge of games was correct, but for now that could wait. I needed to know some things about the game before I jumped out there and got myself killed somehow.

The easiest player here that I could convince to tell me about the game was a young red haired boy who looked incredibly skittish as he snuck into a weapons shop. I didn't really want anyone to know I was here by choice and if he was already scared of something he would most likely try to get the conversation over as soon as possible, without asking me anything in return. I followed him into a weapons shop and noticed he seemed to not have any weapons or armor besides a purple beginning set. Was he just starting out now?

Once I was in the store I was able to find him within a few seconds. He seemed to have been attracted to the premiere display case in the front of the shop which featured an ornate two handed sword. It seemed to me like he would probably have a hard time lifting the sword, to be honest, but what did I know? The game had been for all branches of people to play equally.

Since the kid hadn't noticed me enter yet I decided to add to his nervousness by sneaking up behind him and surprising him.

"Hey kid." His back stiffened up before relaxing. The only thing he had to go off of was my voice so he must have been hiding from someone in particular. I noticed this probably wouldn't be as easy if he wasn't afraid of me as he turned around to find who had startled him.

"Who the fuck are you?" Not the most promising response. His voice was far too young for that language but then again so was mine when I was his age.

"Calm down man, I just wanted to ask you a few questions before you can go back to what you were doing." He obviously didn't like that I was even talking to him in the first place from the way he scowled at me, trying to act intimidating to make me go away. This was going to be just the greatest conversation.

He watched me curiously before deciding to hear me out and impatiently waving his hand in a 'go on' motion.

"First, how do you open the menu?" My question was rather stupid if you were to believe I had been in game for the full three days but it didn't deserve the amount of laughter the kid was giving.

"Where have you been, under a rock? Even those fucking losers outside know how to do that." He continued to laugh at me as he said that. Now it was getting annoying.

"Yeah whatever kid, but how do I?" My patience was wearing thin with this kid.

"Man you're stupid; put out your right hand and sort of flick it open like this." As he said this he did as such, acting like there was a screen was in front of him and clicking around in the air. Oh, it probably wasn't visible to keep some sense of confidentiality among players.

I followed his instructions which to my surprise caused a soft chime to play and a screen to appear in front of me. Rather enamored with the menu I began to phase out the kid. On the left was a character info screen with a character surrounded by multiple grayed out and lit circles and on the right several root options. The next thing I noticed was the unconnected health bar at the top left which had previously hidden itself from my inactivity with it. The bar displayed my username, a full green bar for health and my meager level of 1 in the nearest corner. Overall it looked nice and sleek, something I could get used to easily. The rest of the menu could be investigated later though.

After taking this all in I exited out of the menu to find the kid glaring at me, huh, I had forgotten about him. He must have been trying to get my attention while I was looking at the menu because he wore a rather indignant face.

"Are you done gawking at simple shit like a fucking idiot or do you have any more batshit retarded questions? 'Cause I would really like to get back to doing not stupid things like talking to you." Wow, he was kind of going overboard with his obscenities now and it was beginning to bother me.

"One more since I don't want to waste any more of your time, are you getting gear to head out of the town right now?" I figured this might answer my theory and get a party buddy as well. An annoying one but I didn't want him to head out and die if he was; he was way too young for that.

"Duh, why would I want to stay here with all these stupid people trying to hold me back? I'm getting out of here and I'm going to become the strongest warrior and save all those people who can't do shit." He had big dreams I can give him that but he hadn't actually moved my theory along so I needed to press him with a more specific question.

"You aren't afraid of dying?" His face once again filled with an indignant look before his glare came back full force, this time with yelling.

"No! Nothing can fucking kill me, I'll train as long as it takes to get strong enough that nobody could even think of whispering an idea of taking me down! Those monsters won't be able to think about killing me before they're dead!" The NPC Smith at the counter was now staring at him with programmed annoyance but I could only stare at him with a smile. That answered my unsaid question pretty well and gave me a new one. I needed this kid in my party; he had so much fire in his eyes.

"Nice bro! You think I could party up with you then? Just to make sure we're good while we're still in the lower levels." I added to affirm we wouldn't party up forever. I was really starting to like this kid, even with his annoying features, and it would be a shame to see him die because he was too stubborn on the first couple floors.

He began to rub his chin in a thinking pose as if he was appreciating my skills from just looking at me. After apparently sizing me up enough he smirked before declaring, "Only if I'm party leader!"

It didn't really seem like it would change anything so I agreed to his rather childish request. He waved his hand in the air in what I assumed was him opening his menu. After the kid jabbed the air a few times a window opened up in front of me asking if I wanted to join a party with the player 'ArisEnDemonn', oh god, is this kid serious? I clicked accept and a health bar for him appeared under my own.

"Kid, what is your real name?" Yeah, there was no way I was calling him by his username.

He stared at me questionably before smirking the cheekiest smirk he could and saying, "You can call me leader; or sir if you prefer that." It was now my turn to stare at him in annoyance. I was starting to regret my choice already.

"Yeah, no way kid." I deadpanned.

He looked at me and gave a small flinch at my glower before sighing, "I guess you could call me Harley, all my friends in the real world used to." I could tell he hadn't been unaffected by the game then. His eyes fogged up for a second before he steeled himself up again.

"OK, Harley. Now let's get some gear." Any traces of his earlier sadness were gone at that and I was then thoroughly informed from my new 'leader' about how each of the largest, most expensive items in the shop were nothing compared to what someone of his caliber should wield.

Tuning out his rambling on the difference between swords and 'fake shit' I found myself sneaking away and roaming through the wall holding many different one handed weapons. It looked like there was one of every kind in the game here but I already knew how I would build my character. In all games I chose speed and power over everything else in an attempt to just grow agile enough to dodge anything that came at me so I would definitely need a weapon to suit that.

On further probing my menu told me I had 500 Col for buying my starting equipment. Luckily the beginner's market only charged 200 Col for each of the most likely weak beginner weapons.

Looking at the power output of most of the swords compared to the blunt force weapons I knew I would have to go with the latter. No matter if the bleed affect for a slicing weapon was useful over time; the stunning effect of a heavy blow was what I really needed. Stopping them from attacking while I could get away from their blows would be imperative for my survival based on my build.

I grabbed the modestly crafted' Starting One Handed Warhammer' which, to me, looked like just a beefed up version of a normal hammer from the wall mounted rack and brought it over to the smith. Before I could do that though I found Harley with the biggest sword his money could afford standing by the door. It was obvious the sword he bought was not one of the starting set due to the ornate golden handle and the engravings near the hilt. On remembering what his actions when I entered the shop I knew he had purchased that premiere sword he had been looking at and it most likely cost him all his Col. What an idiot.

Sending him a stare that I hope told him how stupid he was for spending all his money on his weapon I turned to the smith and confirmed with him I was buying my hammer. To this the NPC told me I should go and buy a shield before I left since I would still have a free hand. I could hear Harley's groan from the back as I followed the NPC's advice, figuring the shield wouldn't slow me down too much and would offer me some defense when I would need it.

I came back to the front with a small circular metal shield called the 'Small Parma' which would cost me another 100 of my Col and only dropped 10% of my movement speed for a reasonable amount of defense. Now with both arms equipped with something I left the store with a smiling Harley. He was going to hate it when I told him how much he screwed up.

We headed on to the items store next at my request. Seconds after we were inside, the kid got mad when he found out he didn't have any money left to by any healing items. After I finished explaining in depth how stupid it was to buy a weapon and not think of the rest of his equipment I found myself buying enough potions for the both of us and offering him a few. He denied this vehemently on grounds that he didn't need anyone's help and I allowed him ignorance at the irony of his statement.

With only 25 Col left and it nearing a quarter to eight we found ourselves needing to find somewhere to stay for the night. From what I heard while we were walking around it was risky to be outside past nine for some reason and I was unwilling to let a stubborn kid tell me that didn't matter. We wouldn't have much time to train anyways.

After explaining this to the kid I was forced to go and find an inn for the night, Harley along for the ride of course. Of course, it already being the third day, all of the inns in town were already rented out and since Harley was no help in really just about anything I found myself with only one option, one that would have to split us up for the night as well.

"Sorry kid, there aren't any inns with more than one vacancy and they're probably already closed by now anyways and since you keep saying its 'pedophilic' for me to say we could sleep in the same room together, you'll have to find somewhere else to sleep." Harley had no money and wasn't willing to tell me how much of it he had wasted on his sword so we could go trade it back and get him a cheaper two-hander and a room.

It was called 'Zweihander' and the kid was unwilling to even let me look at it longer than two minutes.

"Just sell one of your dumb ass potions." He didn't understand that those were what were going to keep us alive later.

"First off, no. Second, I have to ask, where have you been sleeping for the past three days?" I was actually curious, had he been sleeping on the streets because he wouldn't have been able to buy his sword if he was spending the hefty amount of money for a room every night.

"I'm not going back to that church full of idiots, will just try to keep me there and take my Zweihander!" Oh, now it was all making sense, he was so on edge when he had been sneaking into the weapons shop because someone was trying to keep here and out of danger.

"Just put the sword back into your inventory for today and sneak out in the morning like you must have done today. If you can't sneak away from whoever has been watching you again you obviously don't deserve to fight out in the field." It was a bit harsh but there was no other way to get him to go sleep somewhere besides knocking him out for the night which obviously wouldn't work. You can't get hurt in town; the brat had proved that when he press yes on some sort of harassment system and sent me flying after I had pushed him too far earlier.

"Don't fucking boss me around!" My ears were ringing as he angrily marched off. Was he going back to the church? Hopefully he was but the idiot might actually try to sleep on the streets just to spite me; it definitely would be within his nature.

Now with much less responsibility I pushed open the door to the 'inn' which itself wasn't actually one. It was mostly just a regular bar but after a tip from one of the players we had crossed by in the items shop I learned the owner of the Drunken Willow had a room upstairs you could convince him to let you sleep in. That was, of course, if you could best him at drinking.

Apparently it was worth it if you were actually able to out drink the old barkeep since it was a much nicer accommodation than the last few rooms the inns in Starting City still had to offer but I was extremely uneasy about the whole situation. I had tried alcohol in the real world once and the following day had been enough to make me ease away from it whenever it was around. My one hope was that it wouldn't affect me quite as much here as it did in the real world.

Affirming my will, I looked around the first floor of the building in hope of finding the barkeep who was nowhere to be seen. I had expected him to be behind the counter but there was only a young looking female NPC who appeared reasonably flustered as she went between taking orders, making them and serving them all by herself. There seemed to be no breaks in between orders as the players who had sat down here looked like they were drowning their sorrow in booze. Either they were wasting their money or my hopes had been ruined and it was affecting their avatars like they had wanted.

If I hadn't known the waitress was a part of a program I would have felt sorry for her. But her stress actually help me in this situation since it showed that the old man should be here or she wouldn't be acting so flustered. So where was he?

In the corner of the room I found my answer, just as a round of boisterous laughter sounded out from one of the wooden tables. The old man was drinking with an African American teen with a huge afro and they looked like they had been at it for a while if their wobbling was any indication. How would I go about getting the key now that that dude was there?

Since only the tables near them were cleared out, by players who had gotten sick of their drunken rambling, I found myself at one such table leaned over staring at them. Maybe the guy with the afro didn't know about the room offering and I could ask the old man after he left. That idea lost all of its structure when the old man took one more drink from the NPC waitress, gulped it down and promptly fell asleep at the table; his face making a resounding thwack on its wood.

To this the teenager's bawling laughter lit the bar back up while the waitress covered her face with her hands in embarrassment at her boss's antics. After a good round of table pounding from the player's mirth he tried to stand up only to trip on the chair he had twisted his ankle around and fall unceremoniously to the floor. After another good round of table pounding as he tried to free himself from his sorry state the player was up and leaned against a wall.

"Yooouuu, you there," he mumbled pointing one of his fingers in my general vicinity, "can you offer me a hand to my room?" Only a few minutes in my chair and now I had to get up again, I guess that's what I get for choosing a spot so close to them.

I sighed as I put the player's arm over my shoulder while at the same time the NPC waitress was trying to pick up her boss. He gratefully slumped into me before talking to himself in my ear. This was just not my night.

As we hobbled over to the stairwell near the entrance he stopped talking to himself and began to address me. "I really appreciate this friend, last night no one was around to pick me up when he dropped out and it left me with a 'stiff' status affect and getting around was a bitch all morning. My friends made fun of me and it sucked." He had done the same thing last night?

"Why would you drink with the barkeep again if you already have the key?" From the blade at his side I could tell he had decided to risk his life in the fields, so why would he give the game the opportunity to screw him over with the drink's after effects again?

"If I'm stuck in the adventurer life why not live it man? It also doesn't hurt that he keeps giving me all this AI knowledge in his rants, like how this circular red fruit that cures hangover and how to convince other NPCs he knows to show you extra goods. Also if you beat him everything you bought with him is free." He continued to ramble on about his drunken findings, enriched with wild arm swings that were close to hitting other players as we walked down the street. Even if he may look like an idiot right now, that was a smart move. I hadn't even thought that the AIs might withhold information.

He only stopped his tales about how the waitress had started to glare at him whenever he entered the tavern to direct me when we needed to make a turn. Starting City was pretty huge; I would probably have a hard time navigating if I hadn't had someone with more experience with me all day.

We eventually made it to the inn he had been directing me to which had been called the Restful Knight and it looked pretty nice to me which meant it was already packed. At the drunken player's request I stopped supporting him just outside since his friends would apparently laugh at him if they saw me helping him here. This was not a one off time either; the guy had met the old man on the first day and had done this every night since then.

"Sorry for having you carry me all the way here man, but it was cool you did," He finally seemed to take notice of my equipment, "hey are you going hunting tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I got this kid in my party and we're going when he finds me." I didn't see any reason not to trust him; he would have tried something already if he was going to do anything.

"Gotta be careful then, there are some dudes around here that have made it their job to steal from starters." He winked at me but it ended up being more of a head turn than anything else. With his warning finished, he began to stumble into the inn. Suddenly I remembered that I still didn't have a room for the night, which was now reaching its latest hours, and he still had the barkeep's key.

"Hey afro-ninja," he turned at the door, "can I borrow that key to the tavern room from you for the night?" He was really my only chance aside from going to Harley's church which may or may not take me and I had no idea where that was anyway.

He seemed to think about it for a few seconds before shrugging and reaching into his pocket. When he found the item he was looking for, he pulled it out, and threw it to me. The key ended up hitting me in the foot. Damn, they did well at replicating intoxication in this game.

"Thanks man, I'll try and return it tomorrow." My drunken savior smiled and gave me a thumbs-up before pushing the rest of the way inside. It was actually pretty lucky he had asked me to take him home now that I thought about it. I may have never found a place to sleep otherwise.

After retracing my path back to the Drunken Willow I snuck past the slowly clearing bottom floor and found myself in front of a couple doors on the second floor. Assuming the doors with signs announcing they were a business room and storage were not my room the one at the end of the hall was my only option. Using the key my still unnamed associate had given me on the lock, I was proven correct and the door to the extra room was open.

The room was furnished with two beds, a small dresser and due to the wooden floor, murmurs below were still rather audible. It didn't really matter to me since it was more than enough for me. Since there were two beds I could have kept Harley with me, but as I had been the one to assume there wouldn't be I would never tell him. The kid complained enough already.

Sitting on the bed I began to flick through my menu. When we were out and about the kid had been adamant that I not get lost in looking through it but now that I had the time I was definitely going to flip through it.

I was curious at what the two lit up circles near my menu character meant but since they didn't seem to do anything I turned to look at the already open 'Character' screen on the left. Since I already knew what I had equipped and what I had for items I chose the third sub-root, Skills. A long list of different abilities appeared on a screen to its right and I was surprised to find at the top it said I had two open slots.

Figuring this would definitely affect my survival, I scrolled through the long list of skills. The first couple swipes were nothing but the different kinds of weaponry you could use in the game and passive equipment enhancements. Since I already had decided on my hammer earlier I found it rather obvious choosing 'One Handed Warhammer' would have to be my first choice unless I wanted to just fling it around.

Actually, would me choosing a weapon skill really teach me how to use it or would the system assist me in every battle? It would be pretty disconcerting if it used me like a puppet whenever I fought.

Leaving my troubled thoughts in the back of my mind I was reminded that I had another skill to allocate. Almost all of the abilities looked worthwhile but I was reminded of the other obvious option by the shield that was leaning against the other bed by my hammer. I was annoyed by how I would need both of the skills for my weapons but I still had to select the 'Lightweight Shield Equipment' tab if I didn't want the shield to be a useless purchase. It was rather sad that I would now have to wait until I had another skill point to get one of the more interesting skills but I guess I needed to be good with what I already had first.

After I closed out of the skills sub-root I noticed the two previously lit orbs around my character were now colored a bright yellow and held a small symbol of a sword and a shield respectively. The only thing I had done in the last couple of minutes was allocate my skills so they must represent them. In total there were twelve orbs so if I could assume level 100 was the cap player level the game would probably give me another slot on every tenth level.

The rest of the menu was basically unusable as I needed to 'Add Allies' to use the 'Communications' and 'Guild' tabs, I didn't really see anything worth changing in the 'Options' sub-root besides the empty tab in it which had started to bother my mind. The only thing in here that could have been useful was the 'Map' tab hidden in the 'Quests ' sub-root which would have been incredible to have known about earlier but was no use to me now.

Feeling worn out with everything I'd done today I closed the menu I fell back onto the stiff bed. My real bed, which I was probably still sleeping on in the real world, was much more comfortable but I guess I would have to get used to being a little uncomfortable while I was here. I shuffled, still finding myself trying to get into a more comfortable position within a few seconds though.

Today had been incredibly useful in understanding my surroundings and while I hated that I hadn't had enough time to get out and adventure I was still rather happy with the turn out. I knew much more about this game now and I felt confident I would be able to do more cool adventurous stuff tomorrow.

As I drifted off though I could only wonder what Kai was doing in the real world now.

* * *

_**As I was writing this I found myself making character pixel art for the character's party but since I don't really know how to post it here I'll have it on my profile it you want to check it out. **_

_**Later.**_


End file.
